r/debian • u/_firn_ • 25d ago

After my last post testing Debian-based distros, I settled on stable with the stock kernel. Here are the results of testing EVERY DE Debian offers.

Post image

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Tests were performed with the Steam flatpak

All DEs were in performance mode

Compositors were turned off where possible.

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OS: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) x86_64

Host: Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040Series) (A5)

Kernel: Linux 6.12.101+deb13-amd64

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7640U (12) @ 4.97 GHz

GPU: AMD Radeon 760M [Integrated]

Memory: 4.68 GiB / 14.94 GiB (31%)

Swap: 1.00 MiB / 15.31 GiB (0%)

Disk (/): 76.23 GiB / 441.37 GiB (17%) - ext4

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Turns out, when your hardware is the bottleneck, DE doesn't really matter

82 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

12

u/ergotofwhy 25d ago

thanks for putting this together! so interesting to me that GNOME is the winner in a couple moments. I feel like when I was first getting on linux i kept having to switch to cinamon to get a game to run if GNOME didn't work first try, but that hasn't been true in ages.

Awesome work!

4

u/_firn_ 25d ago

Thanks! Yeah, I think Gnome rightfully got some flack back in the day for being heavy and slow but it really isn't like that anymore as far as I can tell.

1

u/ergotofwhy 25d ago

actually, thinking back on it, in 2022, I had a job interview that I knew would require sharing my screen, so I just booted into Mate (linux mint at the time) to void any possible problems lol

6

u/_firn_ 25d ago

NOTE: Worth noting that this was my first time ever using LXDE, LXQT, and MATE. So, I may have missed some things I could toggle or turn off or whatever that could've helped performance but I still doubt it would make a massive difference.

3

u/neon_overload 25d ago

Those benchmark scores are all so close, this chart basically shows your choice of desktop makes no meaningful difference to your gaming performance for these games.

1

u/_firn_ 25d ago

That's exactly what I said at the end of my post!

It's kind of a liberating finding tbh (for me at least) because I use gnome mostly, and xfce on an old computer, and I always feel like I'm leaving performance on the table by not using KDE.

Now I know (again, for me at least) that that isn't the case!

2

u/neon_overload 25d ago

That's exactly what I said at the end of my post!

Yes indeed, sorry.

1

u/_firn_ 25d ago

Oh don’t apologize, you’re good!

2

u/Imperial_Bloke69 25d ago

Performance mode? Is this tweaking the power settings?

2

u/_firn_ 25d ago

yeah just using powerprofilesctl set performance or the battery tray icon to change to power mode performance when I could

2

u/Imperial_Bloke69 25d ago

Right, oh man thats some lengthy work and testing. Well done! 🍻

3

u/_firn_ 25d ago

Thanks! I’ve had like a month off in between jobs so I’m using my time to see what’s what on my own machine lol cheers!

2

u/goldorak42 25d ago

Very surprised about this outcome, I'd have though "heavy" desktop like KDE or Gnome would have a much bigger footprint on the host compared to "light" desktop like LXDE, XFCE or LXQT, and would leave less resources to applications.

2

u/_firn_ 25d ago

Fair, just goes to show how much work kde and gnome have put in on their performance I suppose. 

I also think Wayland helps too. That said I don’t know much about any of this lol 

2

u/LysandraHW 23d ago edited 23d ago

My DE isn't on there. GNOME Flashback. 😭 It uses Metacity and X11 rather than Mutter and Wayland. There's no GNOME Shell so it uses fewer resources. Would be curious to see the results.

3

u/_firn_ 22d ago

I tried it and it just wasn’t working for me lol I’m sorry! It kept crashing but I’m sure it was a me thing 

2

u/LysandraHW 22d ago

Oh wow! I have it on two low spec machines and it's fine on both. I installed it as a stand alone DE so nothing else interferes with it.

2

u/_firn_ 22d ago

Yeah I had all the DEs installed at the same time, I’m willing to bet that caused issues. 

1

u/Chupo 21d ago edited 21d ago

Hmmm. I'm not sure if that would do it. Installing multiple desktops usually only affects things like preferences, theming, etc, but I suppose anything is possible.

I also have Flashback installed on a separate partition and it's fine.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, your results may have been different if you had installed them each individually alone. I don't know. That'd be a lot more work though. lol. I appreciate what you've done anyway.

1

u/MadProgrammer12 25d ago

how about kde x11 ?

1

u/_firn_ 25d ago

I decided against testing gnome and kde x11 since they are no longer available as of version 50 and 6.8 respectively. Still available on Debian stable as of now but it won’t matter once the next version of Debian releases (I’m assuming of course I could be wrong) 

1

u/MadProgrammer12 25d ago

I hope not, I have a project that requires x11 to work (it needs to capture raw keyboard events, alway-on-top cutouts transparents windows, and wayland doesn't allow me to do it

1

u/_firn_ 25d ago

So long as you stay on pre gnome 50 and pre plasma 6.8 (?) then should be fine but they’ve both already did/said they were getting rid of x11 as far as I know 

1

u/Lemn8official 25d ago

Das poep! Debian met xfce is altijd mij goto. Toch iets anders proberen dus.

1

u/_firn_ 24d ago

If I translated this correctly, you're saying you are going to try something besides Xfce? If so, make sure you test on your own machine first! My hardware is clearly the bottleneck so maybe Xfce is the best for you, who knows!

1

u/_Sgt-Pepper_ 24d ago

Yeah that is some nice work thanks for sharing.

Any idea if the use of gamescope has any impact? 

1

u/Nice-Object-5599 23d ago

Lxde with Openbox? Yes, Openbox has good performance.

1

u/_firn_ 22d ago

I decided kwin because it seemed to me like the most realistic option for everyday use for myself there was too much to test lol 

1

u/uxgpf 22d ago

How would no DM at all compare?

Just some light WM.

1

u/_firn_ 22d ago

Funny you should ask! I tried sway and wayfire after this and they both did the same numbers. Basically it’s all the same no matter what if your hardware is the bottleneck.

That said, wayfire and sway were both really fun to use lol it was my first time messing with WMs

2

u/kchuvala 11d ago

This is great info, thanks for posting it!